A Tale of Two Silver B's - My First Two Weber Renovations

[Val Deale]

I'm on vacation for this week and have some extra time. We are on Ocracoke Island on the Outer Banks and I thought I'd share some photos I have of the first two grills I fixed up.

They won't be as exciting as some of the incredible craftsmanship and ingenuity I've seen on this forum but I have been really enjoying my grill projects and the forum is about sharing so here it goes -

My first grill was actually a Silver A in pretty good shape I bought for $40. It had a clogged burner and some grime on the control panel and lid that cleaned up well and I was amazed at how well it cooked compared to my last grill. The Silver A still needs a full restoration but it really got me interested in the whole Weber vintage line from the late '90's to the early Silvers. Here's a photo of the Silver A that got me started:
Soon after I was running the Silver A, I looked into B's and C's. I thought the 3rd burner would be a big step up.

I was looking at two Silver B's on FB Marketplace. One was $35 and far away and the other was close by me but the seller wanted $125. I ending up buying the $35 grill but having a long conversation with the owner.

As it turned out, he was really attached to his Weber Silver B but did not have time to clean it and/or getting back to spec. He asked whether I would fix it up for a fee and I said sure. And so I started my first Weber renovation.

Jim's grill was in pretty good shape compared to the one I bought for $35 but needed a lot of elbow grease for the lid and firebox. I was very lucky to have Jim as my first customer - he just said "Val, I'm going to let you take the lead on this project" and he agreed to pay for whatever I needed to renovate his Silver B.

Here are some before shots and the beginning shots of the project:




As you can see from the "DU" it was built in 2002.


And now the cookbox cleaning...
Scraping was next to impossible on the cookbox so I switched to a drill and wire cup.




Scrubbing and de-greasing the outside.


This is what I used for the outside. I put on three coats.


I'm taking a break from the thread and will come back to the lid and other parts soon.

 

[Val Deale]

The inside of the lid needed a lot of deep cleaning. I used mostly a razor paint scraper and LOTS of Simple Green and 0000 steel wool. The big decision I had to make was whether to pull the endcaps.

I decided to just do it. I was concerned about the nut matching so I used an egg carton I numbered. This worked well until I tipped over the carton and the nuts went all over the garage floor.



Taking the endcaps off was a great decision. It allowed me to really get into all the nooks and crannies of the porcelain lid to clean.

As you can see, I also took the emblem off. These were held on by Tinnerman style lock washers. It is interesting to note that my second grill, built a year later in 2003, used a single self threading nut (similar to the Silver endcap self threading nuts) to hold the emblem.

Here is what was behind the emblem. And the following after cleaning.



Here are photos of the emblem restoration and then I will take a short break and continue with the endcaps.
It's really cool after successive sanding with progressively finer grit sandpaper how the Weber emblem comes back to life.

I finished with 640 grit. On my second grill I finished with 220 for a shinier effect. But the fine polishing on Jim's grill I thought looked good.

 

[BPratt]

Looks good. If you keep doing this get a long handled decal scraper like this

 

[Val Deale]

For the endcaps, I had heard about media blasting and was fortunate to know a company next to where my company's offices are that works exclusively on high performance engines. The nice people there blasted my endcaps as a favor. They used some sort of fine glass beads in the blasting machine that is also used for high tolerance race car engines. Here are the results.

Now comes the painting of the endcaps. I noticed that they seemed so smooth that I wanted to add some of the original texture back on the surfaces. @Josh Dekubber helped me with detail by showing a shot nap rolling technique he had used. I decided to try it out on Jim's grill. I thought it looked great and Jim liked it too. Here are some shots of the prep work and painting.



I mounted the endcaps on scrap small Amazon boxes so I could maneuver them while rolling.











I'm taking another short break and then the lid assembly.

 

[Josh Dekubber]

Very nice work Val!

 

[Val Deale]

After the endcaps dried and I finished the lid, it was time for reassembling.






On a earlier thread somewhere I posted these shots and it led to the famous line by @LMichaels : "Does your wife know what you are doing on your kitchen table?" My friends and family still think that comment is hilarious.

Jim's frame was in pretty good shape so I touched up areas with Rustoleum Rust Reformer and some areas of gloss.

For the plastic knows and other parts I used advice from @Bruce and soaked them in a Clorox solution.



The control panel cleaned up nicely with Simply Green and 0000 steel wool.



Since I'm a newbie I put the various nuts and bolts in labeled egg carton cups. This one I fortunately did not spill all over the garage floor like the endcap nuts.

I was able to find new white hubcap for Jim on Etsy. They make a difference.

I also installed new wheels. We tried to go with all Weber original parts when we could.




For reassembling the cookbox and manifold bolts I applied some of this anti-seize grease so if down the road disassembly was needed it would be easier.





A burn test and then reassembling.
A short break and then the final photos of Jim's finished grill...

 

[Val Deale]

For Jim's Silver B, we went with new Weber burners. For the flavor plates, I installed aftermarket Amazon 16 guage stainless steel. Jim liked cast iron grates so I bought cast iron grates on Amazon and seasoned them three times in my home oven. Here are the final photos of the assembled grill.











I didn't cable tie the new igniter wires...maybe on a later project...





There we are with the finished Weber Silver B. And finally, it was loaded on Jim's pickup truck to be the family grill at their lake home. Jim was happy with having his old Weber working again. His wife had given it to him almost 23 years ago and now it will stay in the family - hopefully for many more years to come!



That's the end of Chapter One of The tale of Two Grills. Chapter Two - "The Block Party Grill" will come soon (but shorter because I have less photos!)

But first, I want to thank some people who helped me with these projects that I really enjoy!

@Bruce gave me the link to this forum on a FB Marketplace DM and helped me with a lot of basic questions. Also, @LMichaels , @Steve Hoch , @Josh Dekubber , and of course - @Chris Allingham who runs this awesome forum!

Thanks again everyone!

 

[LMichaels]

Some incredible work there

 

[Josh Dekubber]

Thanks for sharing Val! It's always nice to see other people's projects!

 

[Steve Hoch]

Very nice work!

 

[Jon Tofte]

So great to see classic Webers getting a beautiful new lease on life. Thank you for sharing the journey!